File Watcher utility scheduling

[Udayan Kumar]

All,

I am planning to implement a file watcher utility similar to one as mentioned in this link
http://download.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/io/notification.html

My question is related to options in the java space on how do I keep this utility up and running all the time to listen to the file change events.
Should I create it as a web component and deploy it in a web/application server or resort to creating a java program configured to run in OS level scheduler.

Do post your thoughts on how to go about the scheduling aspect for this utility.

Thanks,

[Jesper de Jong]

You can just run a Java program and leave it running; there's no need to make it run in a Java EE application server. If you want your program to be started whenever the computer starts, then you'd need to do that using some operating specific method to start programs at startup. Which operating system are you using?

Note that the APIs that are used in that tutorial are new in Java 7, which is not officially released yet. You can't use things like WatchService in Java 6 or older.

[Otto Takacs]

If you want to implement the same but using java before 7 just visit the followinv site:
http://jpathwatch.wordpress.com/

[Campbell Ritchie]

That looks a useful application. and welcome to the Ranch